01-24-2021, 08:52 PM
(01-24-2021, 08:42 AM)LongRanger_imp Wrote: What’s the backstory on their demise? Overall decline in motorcycle sales? Increasing noise regulations? Competition from less expensive brands?
UK sales were quite buoyant considering the times we are in? This from a MCN article. You would get a bit suspicious of those numbers mind, that is a lot of sales in December and you might wonder if this is a case of dealers forced to take stock from manufacturers and pre-register them?
As the Coronavirus pandemic caused havoc in dealers, biking bucked the automotive trend by offering viable and safe transport solutions for much of the year. A total of 104,612 machines were sold, just 2,796 less than in 2019. Even with the additional restrictions and changes in regulations, motorcycle sales saw a staggering 58.1% growth in December.
As consumers continued to choose two wheels to stay Covid-safe when commuting, many delivery businesses also required additional scooters and mopeds to meet the rising demand. All of this led to a 10.5% rise in scooter registrations for the year and only a 6.7% drop for motorcycles.
Continually strong performance through the year for adventure sport (-9.9%), sport/tour (-9.5%) and naked bike (-7.9%) segments, indicated that both new and old riders alike were still engaged and wanting to get onto new bikes. BMW once again showed great traction with the R1250GS Adventure and the touring R1250RT.